iGreg wrote:I found the laminate floors end up look cheap as well but maybe with the newer more durable types that is not case, the attached image shows the different materials in the layering system and the variety of colors is very good.

Ceramic plank tiles with wood grain are very nice my issue is chipping and cracking and you'll pay 5x to 7x as much to lay thatthen laminate.

Hardwood floors are what I am going over, they are great but have a lifespan after being refinished a few times although they are original to this apartment that is close to 100 years old and that is not too shabby of a return on investment.

I'm not sure what anyone is referring to when they say "looks cheap". There's a lot of variables, like thickness, texture, and just how good a picture of wood is printed on the board. I laid this floor below in 2002 for my 3 year old son. It's still nearly perfect, and that floor had a dramatic dip in the middle where the 5/4 subfloor had apparently been scraped multiple times down to the tongue of the planks.

If it's a valuable home and you like hardwood, but it's beyond another resanding, why not just replace the hardwood?

hero69 wrote:I have a friend who bought a craftsman style house about 15 years ago. he put down laminate and now they look cheap. he keeps talking about painting in order to make the place look nicer. I told him that no amount of painting is going to overcome the problem of his floors. I told him to look into porcelain that looks like wood, or even engineered wood floors.

any recommendations for something that will look good after 50 years? he says the wood floors are in such poor shape that they can't be sanded. I doubt this since I got my hardwood floors to great even after being covered in vinyl

I found the laminate floors end up look cheap as well but maybe with the newer more durable types that is not case, the attached image shows the different materials in the layering system and the variety of colors is very good.

Ceramic plank tiles with wood grain are very nice my issue is chipping and cracking and you'll pay 5x to 7x as much to lay thatthen laminate.

Hardwood floors are what I am going over, they are great but have a lifespan after being refinished a few times although they are original to this apartment that is close to 100 years old and that is not too shabby of a return on investment.

I have a friend who bought a craftsman style house about 15 years ago. he put down laminate and now they look cheap. he keeps talking about painting in order to make the place look nicer. I told him that no amount of painting is going to overcome the problem of his floors. I told him to look into porcelain that looks like wood, or even engineered wood floors.

any recommendations for something that will look good after 50 years? he says the wood floors are in such poor shape that they can't be sanded. I doubt this since I got my hardwood floors to great even after being covered in vinyl

iGreg wrote:Where you can't go under existing molding, how are you trapping the edges?Just running clamshell molding over it ?

1/4 round molding. I prefer 5/8, since it give more room for error as the flooring shifts. Most directions say to leave at least 1/4" from the wall, at least for the wood fiber based product. I'm not familiar with the product you're showing, but it's possible it can be cut and snapped with a box cutter like the 5mm planks I'm working with, rather than needing a saw. Check the directions.

Looks nice but very pricey, the 5mm planks from Lumber Liquidators I'm currently installing are half that. I'd buy it if I was replacing 8mm laminate, so the molding undercuts matched.

I revisited some of the laminate today and the newer stuff is made much better, the hard top coating seems very durable with a rubber or cork type base - looks quite good actually.

What are you cutting the panels with when needing to made edges or openings say for radiator legs?

The stuff I looked at advertised a 20 year lifespan and the hard top surface has me wondering how to get clean cuts.

It's not hard to cut but the silica heavy coating destroys blades quickly. I have a table rig for my hand jigsaw that makes it like a little tablesaw. Jigsaw blades are much cheaper than carbide circular saw blades, and you'd need it anyway for cutting details. There trickiest part of laying this stuff is scribing it to the uneven walls in these old houses and getting it under the moldings you undercut with an oscillating saw.

hero69 wrote:I haven't seen where laminate buckles, but after awhile they start to swell at the ends and end up looking cheap. that has been my experience.

Are you talking about water damage, or that slight lifting of the edge where they meet if there's no bevel? I think that comes from the flexing of the planks sinking slightly into the foam underlayment. I've started buying the type with the small bevel for exactly that reason, and I'm sure that's why it was developed. The way you can get buckling is installing it too tight in cool dry weather like now, and then it expands in summer.

If you're addressing me, the products I'm using all float. That way you can pull it up and replace a plank if it comes to that. The subfloor can be quite bad and it will still be fine. For what you linked or what's commonly called 'linoleum tile' AKA vinyl composition tile or VCT, that needs a perfect subfloor to glue down to. I'd NEVER do the peel and stick, been there done that. Comes up.

The tongue and groove floating systems I find can buckle and not particularly overly durable unless adhesive is used underneath them.

If you're addressing me, the products I'm using all float. That way you can pull it up and replace a plank if it comes to that. The subfloor can be quite bad and it will still be fine. For what you linked or what's commonly called 'linoleum tile' AKA vinyl composition tile or VCT, that needs a perfect subfloor to glue down to. I'd NEVER do the peel and stick, been there done that. Comes up.

It has better wear and water resistance than laminate, doesn't crack, has a lot of different patterns and styles, and is not very expensive.

I've been using the click type 5mm LVP in kitchens and am currently laying it in a stairwell. It's pretty good, but I find it much harder to lay than standard 8-10mm laminate, of which I've laid thousands of feet. Most of which is doing fine, even my son's room which survived him from 3 to off to college.

Water is the real enemy of laminate, but there's some new products advertised as more resistant. Costco, where I've bought the most, has a product saying it can resist spills for 24 hrs. Plus it's around $1.30/ft.